He returns from vacation and receives $58,000 after 40 years of working at the company: “It was a mutual dismissal”

A worker from the Styrian region of Austria returned from vacation to an unexpected shock: after forty years at a wood factory, he found he had been fired without warning and removed from the country’s social security system. The company claimed the departure had been a “mutual agreement,” even though national labor law grants special protections and compensation to employees with such long service.

Thanks to the intervention of the Chamber of Labor, more than $54,000 was deposited into his account as compensation. Under Austrian labor rights, a worker can challenge an unjustified dismissal in court within two weeks, a safeguard that becomes especially important when there is no works council in place to advocate for staff.

Grounds for contesting a dismissal include discrimination, violation of special protections – such as those for pregnant employees – or situations in which the dismissal leaves the worker in an extremely difficult social position.

Germany takes a slightly different approach. There, the deadline is three weeks and the system is more restrictive: employers must justify a dismissal, whereas in Austria they do not, although a firing can still be overturned if it is abusive, unlawful or discriminatory. That proved to be the case for the worker at the center of this story.

Legal expert Lukas Hartlauer of the Chamber of Labor stressed how crucial it is to seek immediate legal assistance to safeguard one’s rights, resolve abusive dismissal cases and secure potential compensation. In this instance, the intervention led to a swift and favorable outcome for the worker.

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